[font=Comic Sans MS]Sunday 15th May and James and I took a long journey to Coventry to participate in Warhammer Fest.
Arriving nice and early we insured that we were first in line to collect our free goody bag, program and seminar passes for Black Library and Forgeworld. Upon entry we were escorted fast track due to our over-ambitious entry for Golden Daemon. Already regretting our decision before we even got to the registration desk we decided that laughter was the best cure and entered anyway. So cringing away we watched the team take my entry and place it in the Warhammer 40,000 single model cabinet. The Archon stood up well in the cabinet, but it was clear that there were some high quality entries waiting to be placed.
We didn't hang around to wound our pride any further. Off to the team desks and we wasted no time in finding Duncan Rhodes over at Warhammer TV. Yes, as you can imagine this was like a backstage VIP ticket for me. I'm not sure how long I was with Duncan, but it is fair to say it was quite some time. Having spoken about the use of Nhiliist Oxide for coloured compounds I asked for tips on painting on highlights with black. Out came my note pad and my converted Lady Malys model. Duncan first of all used a paint brush to point out where the highlights should go before selecting a series of highlight/layer colours to explain which and why you would use them. So stark clean metals might use Eshin, followed by Dawnstone, where as reflective black may use Dark Reaper with Fenris. Dirty blacks would suite Skavenblight Dinge and maybe Stormvermin, where as worn leather might look good with rhinox and karak stone as Highlights.
We then went on to talk about Iron Hands, and their background in the Heresey. Interestingly the army team paint Iron hands by dry brushing the whole model silver first. As for background there isn't much but Foregeworlds Horus Heresey book 2 contains a good deal on them. There is alos Fulgrim and the short story Feat of Iron that looks closer at Ferrus Manus. There is also short abstracts pertaining to the Iron W=Hands no longer seeing Ferrus as worthy owing to him being killed - he must have been weak.
Next stop the Eavy Metal team. Neil Green was at the stand so I took the opportunity to talk to him. What can I say? Well he doesn't give much away, but does offer up small tit bits of advice if you have something particular. So for instance he mentioned about ensuring that the base colour can still be seen and he reference Dark Eldar flesh for his example. This then led to the discussion about painting their make-up. At this point he very kindly took Lilith Hesperax out of the cabinet and passed her over to me to handle and observe. If anyone thinks that the photography is computer enhanced then think again. This was a true work of miniatures art. Neil went on to say that a model like this would take an Eavy Metal artist around 3-4 working days to complete. With White Dwarf releasing weekly you can imagine the time pressure they work under.
Off to White Dwarf. I quickly picked up Matt Hutson as I wanted to know the conclusion to Slaughter at Schrodinger VI from about 4 years ago in White Dwarf - Necrons Vs Black Templars. Matt had vague recollections of this, but couldn't really remember it's outcome - but he assures me (after some encouragement from James) that he must have won.
As we yapped on about how we got into the hobby we quickly realised that we must have started at pretty much the same time. We both remember purchasing our first White Dwarf - the red covered one that had all of the Heroquest and Space Crusade goodies in it (any one of my age will know exactly which one I am referring too).
I then snuck up on Dan like the Dark Eldar Archon I am. After a short discussion about the evolution of GW Model kits and how some of the olod Big models now really are just - well - Not BIG, I then revealed my identity (we had agreed by e-mail to meet). So after the cursary snips at my sneak attack we had a firm hand shake and discussed how he managed to paint 3 leman Russ tanks so darn fast and our eny at his mate who has his own gaming room with about 3 tables in it (I want).
Dan - if you do happen to read this then just a note that I was supposed to challenge your Tau to a game. Oh well, you would have lost (What kind of Archon would I be if I didn't have that kind of arrogance). Anyway, good too see you guys and hopefully we see some articles from [Vetock, Kelly and Johnson sometime soon (hint hint)
Next up off to the black Library seminar. This was a nice session, although little came out of it - unfortunately it's not the sort of material they can discuss for obvious reasons. However, Horus Heresey is now in full swing to the assault of Terra an you should be reading a book soon called Dorn's Paetorian. I wasn't taking notes, but I seem to remember that a book with the Alpha Legion being mentioned and that it is based in the Solar System.
TBC /font]
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